— Unknown —

My world was filled with light and noise, rumbling, and striking. My ears had long burst, the red liquid still flowed out my ears, but I refused to move. I was open. I was the conduit. I was the storm. I had gone to where the tempest was to form and opened up all my channels, and created a larger and larger negative charge, until the storm began with the first bolt of lightning striking me, flowing through me and into my work below.

I held the conduit as I was struck again and again. Drawing more and more power into my work. After the third lighting bolt, I was forced to split my mind slightly away from the channel. The staff couldn’t contain all that energy. I had miscalculated, my staff was acting as a resistor to not overload my work, but it was close to breaking. I opened a sort of a release valve on the staff in an attempt to siphon off excess energy. It works but also drew in more clouds. The storm became more fierce, high winds threatened to through me from my spot thus destroying my work. I couldn’t let that happen, I had taken months to get all the materials together. Not to mention the cost. This couldn’t...no wouldn’t be a waste of time.

I grit my teeth and did something stupid, I opened myself up fully to the storm and threw my stuff away. It was time to truly become one with the storm. With the staff no longer impeding the wind and rain, the full power of the element pulsed through me turning from matter into elemental energy. I took that energy funneling it below.

The storm grew and I felt my channels stretch and tare, but I continued pulling everything into me. All the while the storm built a larger and larger charge until with one final blinding sound it struck.

The energy was too much to contain blowing out all my channels and bursting blood vessels. I fell to the ground blood dripping from every orifice. Somehow I was able to guide everything into it. The working glowed with power brighter and brighter until a beam of light shot into the storm dispersing it.

I was laying on my back staring at the bright blue sky. Did it work? With the last of my energy, I turned over and grabbed the woven metal ring at the center. It took forever to find all the right metals and monster materials to work, but I did it. brushing the metal with my fingers I could feel the power just beneath the surface. Pulling it close I could see the storm contained within two words along the inside of the ring. “Storm Rider”

With the ring in my hand, I let the one remaining channel flow mana through me and into the ring. My body burst into a dark cloud of rain and thunder. I had truly become the storm.

— Bay —

I awoke laying on a cold hard stone, with the feeling of wind all around me. For a moment I was back in the dream, becoming the storm. Instinctively reaching for my torn channels. I found the whole, unblemished, and a lot smaller. This more than anything made me wake up. I kept my eyes closed knowing that it would signal the start of the test. Laying there the wind blew my clothes all around me. from all directions. It was strong. I felt if I tried to stand the wind would knock me over.

To get a better feel for the room I flexed my pathways open feeling the mana around me. “Ah!” I let out a yelp of pain, feeling an immense pressure try to force its way through me.

I knew with that yelp the test would begin, as the wind grew stronger. I opened my eyes to find I was on a stone platform. Crawling over to the edge I saw I was surrounded by water, and on one side of the platform was a small narrow bridge that led to a door on the other side. “Simple, channel the power to make it through. Fail and get knocked to the water.” I had already seen the ladder on the other side for when I would inevitably fall, so I wasn’t really worried.

I was struggling to my knees, getting ready for a control run; no open channels just me. That's when the voice of Zauberer, my guide through all my training. “Open yourself.”

“Do you have to do the all-knowing thing?”

The voice of Zauberer ignored me and continued. “There is a storm of mana around you.”

“I figured that part out already.” I felt like I was yelling at the wind. Now that I thought about it I was. “Ha.”

“Feel it. Guide it.” I began to tune him out, beginning my first test. I stood and as I made my way closer to the bridge, the wind became stronger and more erratic. It was nearly impossible to walk a straight line. No way to compensate or predict the currents in the room. I was three steps away from the bridge when a burst of air knocked me off the platform into the water below.

The water was kind of nice, and calm. There was no storm down here, just water and a ladder. I took some time to myself and floated in the nice warm water thinking of nothing. It was nice after the craziness of the whole process. I relaxed letting my mind wander thinking back to something that had been nagging at me for a while. When was the last time I ate something?

Thinking over the last few days, I knew I hadn’t had a bite to eat. Am I being fed intravenously? I felt my body for a scar or new wounds, finding nothing but smooth flesh. Don’t think so. I don’t feel hungry at all. Thinking back on it I haven’t felt hungry during any of the training, no matter how long it lasted. I never really was able to think about it since I would pass out at the end of the day. That's another thing, why do I always go to bed immediately after? Why can’t I refuse? How can I refuse when it just happens.

These thoughts swirled through my head without answers as I floated. “I won’t find answers down here.” I made my way to the ladder and climbed up. The wind slowly picked up as I climbed, but was manageable, pulling myself onto the platform.

Zauberer's disembodied voice vibrated once more. “There is too much for you to control, so you must nudge it. Change it. Make it into what you need it to be.” The voice paused before adding. “This is your only way out.”

I rolled my eyes at his grandiose statement. This whole test was quite simple. Why is he trying to make it more than it is? I had gathered enough data from my first test to finish this test. It was just a bunch of wind energy I needed to channel through me, instead of pounding on me. I just needed to be careful since there was so much mana flowing through the room.

with the amount of energy flowing through the room, I slowly opened one of my pathways, incrementally acclimating myself to the pressure. It didn’t take long before I felt comfortable enough to move, taking one step after another toward the bridge. The wind was no longer pushing me around flowing through me rather than against me. The pressure grew until I felt the channel start to strain to reach the bridge. I take the time to open another channel relieving the tension. As I walked across the bridge I repeatedly opened my channels until all seven had been opened. I felt like a balloon swelling and deflating doing this, but other than being uncomfortable the test was a breeze. Taking the last step in front of the door, the wind stopped. The sudden abrupt absence of mana caused me to collapse to the ground.

I didn’t have time to close the channels and lost control of all the energy. I quickly closed them and had to open a tiny hole in one pathway and draw in some energy. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to move. It took all my measly reserves of internal energy to reach out and grab something. Even then it took some time for the mana to move into my body giving me the energy to move.

When I was able to move I opened the door. Now let’s see if I can get some answers.’

Making my way into the small empty room I heard the voice once more. “Any questions?”

“Why am not I hungry?”

“I meant about channeling.” He seemed annoyed.

“That's simple, but why am I not hungry when I haven’t eaten in...I don’t know how long?”

There was a long pause before he spoke again. “It has to do with the proximity to our guild crystal that takes care of all your bodily needs. Now get some sleep.”

Could it be that simple? I was about to as a follow-up when my body moved on its own over to the bed, and I felt unbelievably tired. “Figures.” I was out as soon as I laid down.